


Prank War

by Dorktapus42



Series: Come Together-verse [45]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Gen, Power Swap, Prank War, except Dark he makes scrapbooks, flower meanings! yay!, i swear the host and author have a get-together every tuesday, iplier and schneep roped them into it, its canon all the anti-egos knit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-18 19:35:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20318365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorktapus42/pseuds/Dorktapus42
Summary: The Jims, Mare, Phantom, Sam, Tim, Host, and Author have a prank war.But Host and Author are there, so it has some class~.Well, Host has class. Author... just goes a little wild with the idea.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> *patiently waits for it to be seven days because I have a schedule but I can't wait for the one after this because it's hilarious and probably my favourite in this series after Stabby*  
date: 7 days after the last one  
Me: *breaks down door* LET'S HAVE A PRANK WARRRRRR-
> 
> Flower meanings: (you might want these in another tab. I'm rather proud of the sunflower bit lol) https://www.theflowerexpert.com/content/aboutflowers/flower-meanings

“You know what we should do?”

“What?”

Mare and Phantom lay inside the cane, papers and books spread around them as always. A few empty mugs sat on various stacks. They were bored out of their everloving minds. It was hot and humid, the entire Void was listless and relaxing in the air-conditioning of their homes, and they had had no plans for ages. 

“We should go prank the Egos.”

Phantom got up onto his elbows, the recliner propping him up further. 

“You sure that’s a good idea?”

“Could be fun. Any ideas?”

A few moments of silence. 

“I have one. It’s gonna take a lot of work to pull off though.”

“Let’s hear it.”

\----------

Phantom drew on the purple streaks. “These look right?” Then he made a face at the mirror and scrubbed them off. “Nope.”

“We should ask Nate for help. He’s the one who made us look so good.”

A pause. “I think that’s the best idea you’ve had in awhile.”

“You sure us just dressing up like each other isn’t too cliche?”

“I dunno, I thought it was fun. Anything beats us just sitting around. I haven’t had any good deals for months, and it’s not like we have any hobbies.”

“I have the knitting club.” Mare pointed out.

“Yeah, well Ms. Thompson said she was canceling the ones this month because Blank, Mike, and Challenge had gotten a dog and she wanted to be around to keep them from getting into any trouble and Father Ethan from going insane from stress.”

“I didn’t know they got a dog.”

“When I say dog I mean small bear.”

“That makes more sense. And a terrifying mental image, so thanks for that.”

“You’re welcome. Dark banned me from starting a casino, so I don’t really have any plans right now. This is the best plan I’ve made in weeks.”

“You were going to make a casino? That sounds fun.”

“Yup. Deceit was going to be my bartender and everything. It would have been great.”

“Huh. You wanna pop on over to ask Nate to doll us up?”

“Sounds good.”

They disappeared in a puff of smoke. 

They appeared to a very shocked silence. 

“Yo.”

Nate seemed to be the only calm one in the room. Understandable.

“Oh, hey. You’re not here to kill me, right?”

“Nah. Just wanted to ask if you could do my makeup like Mare’s and find a way to conceal Mare’s things.” He pointed generally towards his face to clarify.

“Why?”

“Pulling a prank.”

“Huh. That explains why he’s in your usual outfit. Dunno, not the makeup guy.”

“Oh. Hey, we could probably just switch bodies.”

“Wait, what?”

“Ya know, with a contract or something.”

“... That’s a really good idea, actually. Sorry to bother you guys.”

They disappeared in a poof of red smoke. 

“Should I have warned you guys that was a possibility?”

Everyone seemed to come to a unanimous agreement to pretend that had never happened and move on. 

Probably the best.

\-----------

Phantom banged his fist against the side of the machine, which seemed to be whirring and groaning. 

“We could still probably just use makeup.”

“Sure we could, but then we’d only have to work on mannerisms and stuff. And that’s a lot easier. Come  _ on _ -”

With a disgruntled whine the machine spat out a tightly-rolled contract, which actually did bean him on the head this time. 

He winced and glowered at it. “What’s got you all riled up?”

Mare laughed. “Only you would bicker with your machines. Alright, where do I sign?”

\-----------

‘Phantom’ looked uncomfortable as he tried to replicate Phantom’s loping walk. ‘Mare’ shook his head with a sigh. 

“Walk like your pants are too tight. That’ll help.”

With an elongated groan Mare complied. It worked. 

Phantom rolled his shoulders and tried to walk like Mare, eventually just giving a shrug when Mare gave a thumb’s up. “Good enough.”

\-----------

Things hit a snag when Phantom tried to teleport them to the Manor. 

Purple lightning flickered around him as he was zapped across the room and onto the top of a very tall stack of books. 

“Aw fuck!”

Mare stopped to look up. 

“Oh damn.”

Phantom snapped at him to toss up the contract. For once, he complied. 

He sat down in on of Phantom’s plush chairs to wait. 

It wasn’t until Phantom was letting out a very loud groan and a series of very creative curses that he raised a single brow. “What’s up?” He hadn’t seen Phantom lose his composure like this in awhile. 

“We didn’t switch our powers so they’d be the same. Normally Florence would add that in but she’s being sulky.”

“Florence?”

“My machine.”

Ah. 

Wait a sec-

“So I have your powers, and you have mine?”

“Essentially.”

“Well shit. Here, take one of these.”

Mare tossed up a purple vial from the large cardboard box next to the chair and watched Phantom flounder to catch it and stay on his precarious perch at the same time. 

He downed it, pleasantly surprised that it just tasted like water. 

Then his eyes widened as the markings on his face flared purple and he felt like he’d just been shocked by something with an ocean of energy. “Holy  _ shit _ .”

“Yup. You get used to it. So… how will we be getting to the manor?”

That was a very good question. 

Because to Phantom his magic was like… flexing a muscle. As much as you could scream at an arm to flex, you just… had to do it. 

And Mare was in a very similar position. 

Well, at least the contract ended at midnight. 

\-----------

Mare managed to eject both of them from the cane. Unfortunately, they were in a very remote part of the Void. 

No, wait-

They were by the PJ area. Near the Hotel, if he remembered right. 

So that was only about a half-hour walk to the manor. That wasn’t so bad. 

Then it started to rain. 

Phantom just turned his face to the sky and groaned. 

\---------

It was about half and hour later when two soaked, muddy blobs sloshed into the foyer of the manor. 

Three roombas frantically beeped in worry, two going to clean up the mud as best they could (whish wasn’t very well) and the third beeped at a few others to go get some blankets and towels. 

Mare just kicked off Phantom’s shoes and flopped over the arm of the couch, ignoring the fact that his pants from the knee-down were covered in mud. 

Phantom looked down at the chairs longingly, but stood, gratefully accepting the towel and cocoa Stabby hovered over. 

Dark appeared in the stair landing, hurrying down with more blankets appearing at his fingertips. |What the hell were you two doing in the rain?|

“We went for a nice afternoon stroll.” Mare groused. 

“We ended up getting caught in the rain while taking a walk in this general direction.” Phantom amended. 

Dark took a step back to survey the both of them. 

|You’ve swapped bodies, haven’t you?|

“ _ No shit _ .” Mare snapped into the couch cushions, voice still muffled by the fact that he had flopped face-first onto the furniture without bothering to move. 

“Unfortunately. We were actually planning on pranking you all, but then stuff… happened.”

Dark cracked a grin.

“What?”

He waved it off. |Nothing, just a thought. I don’t suppose it’ll just last a certain amount of time?|

Phantom snapped his fingers reflexively as if to call for the contract but nothing happened. He sighed. “If I remember right, it should end at midnight. 

|And if you remember wrong?| Dark’s voice was mildly amused. 

“Well I don’t want to think about that, now do I? 

A shrug. |That’s fair.| He snapped his fingers and the tracks of mud on the floor, along with the mud on their clothes, disappeared.

Phantom eyed him. “I thought you couldn’t change the inhabitants of the Void.”

He received a more characteristic smirk. |I didn’t. I changed the mud. If you two want to hang around I just added some guest rooms too- help yourself.|

Then he walked off. 

Mare had propped himself up with an elbow to watch him leave. 

“I think that’s technically cheating. Changing the mud.”

“Wording is everything.” He pointed out.

“Still sounds a lot like cheating.”

They sat there for a moment before the lampshade on the lamp next to them moved. A small green eyeball and a little wooden crate peeked out. 

_ “You said something about pranks?” _

There was a yelp as someo- two-  _ five _ people popped up from the back of the couch. That seemed physically unlikely, but hey, it happened.

They were wearing the same style shirt in a very familiar shade of blue. It seemed the set colour scheme had dissolved. 

Of course, if you were really observant you’d notice the friendship bracelets on their wrists were in the colours they had previously set, but most called them Jim for convenience. Not to say that their personalities were completely different as well-

“I think they did indeed Jim-”

“Well you know what that means Jim-”

Phantom silently lamented the fact that he didn’t have his powers. If only he had them he’d actually be able to tell who was who. Hey, sometimes he made deals strictly for his benefit. Okay, all the time, but that wasn’t the point.

Well, and back then he had been considering hiring the Jims as one of the casino’s bands, so he’d kind of needed to know who was who now didn’t he?

“-we can put our heads together and enact revenge Jim?”

“Exactly Jim!”

Mare cut in. “Revenge? What are you talking about?”

“Bing put a knife on Stabby. As great as it is, he’s not the one getting stabbed, now is he?”

Okay that actually made sense. 

Wait. 

“Stabby? You made a space roomba?” Mare looked like he was  _ this _ close to laughing his head off. 

“Unfortunately.”

“How about pranking tomorrow? A nice, all-day thing.” The other Jims nodded in agreement.

Mare rubbed his hands together, an evil grin decorating his face. 

_ “Excellent.” _

Oh boy. 


	2. Chapter 2

SJ grabbed a massive sketchbook full of pranking ideas and Rifted down to the living room, smacking it down on the coffee table. 

“I was thinking we could do-”

“-we can’t to anything with buckets. We helped Yan with the gold paint prank, remember?”

“...Alright.” Cue page flipping as he searched for what he wanted. “What about this one-”

“Too similar to the tack prank.” Ah. Yeah, that one hadn’t worked too well.

A pause. 

“What about a classic? Encasing everything in jello?”

“We’d have to team up with either Dark or Wilford for that one, remember?”

A groan. 

Then a pause. 

“What if we took this one out of storage?”

A pause. Then four other matching grins as Tim, Sam, Mare, and Phantom looked up in faint amusement. 

“That’ll work.”

“Sweet. It should be easy to set up. Who do we want to target?”

“Dark, duh. He got a kick out of it last time.”

“What prank are you guys repeating?”

There was an eye roll from… Phantom? Something seemed… weird. “Why would you repeat a prank? That’s just lazy.”

Mare? smacked him in the arm with a hand. “Be nice. What Mare  _ meant  _ to say was-”

CJ started laughing his head off. 

All of the other Jims stared at him. It hadn’t quite clicked. 

He gasped for breath. “I saw something like this on one of my trips- you guys fucked up the contract, didn’t you?”

There were a few grumbles then a nod. 

The Jims started laughing like hyenas. Even Tim snickered. 

“But yeah, it seemed to cheer everybody up last time we did it, so it’s worth pulling it out of the closet. Is there anyone we shouldn’t target?”

There were hums. 

“Chase.”

“Yeah, maybe let him get his later in the day so he knows what to expect.”

RJ perked up. “We could invite Eric over and get him too! That would be fun!”

“Host’ll know it’s there. We were lucky we managed to get him with the paint one we did with Yan. Maybe Author?”

“Who knows if that’ll work, but it’s worth a shot.”

“What will you need us for?” 

They pondered the question. 

“Sam and Tim, you guys will need to help distract or keep up spirits as necessary. If this doesn’t help make people happy we’re aborting the plan, got it?”

Dang, they were being really strict about this.

I guess even the Jims were more observant than everyone thought.

“And if it goes south?”

“Make ‘em cake.”

Seemed like a solid enough back-up plan. 

“And us?”

“You’ll help us plant them, of course. Or distract. Your choice.”

This was… gonna be fun?

\------------

Unbeknownst to the group planning in the living room off the foyer, Author and Host had every idea what was going on from their spot in the library. 

They played chess and had philosophical debates every Thursday, after all. 

It helped keep them from holing themselves up in their work. Occasionally even Iplier and Schneep joined them for a game of Scrabble. 

That was always fun. 

Author leaned back on the yellow couch, pondering what move he should take next. 

Host had completely shot his plan to pieces and, judging from the grin his opponent was sporting, he damn well knew it. 

He settled for moving a pawn and watching Host’s expression. 

It was useless. He had the best poker face out of everyone, except for maybe Dark. 

“What time is it?”

Host answered immediately. “The time is 10:45 in the morning.” The man always seemed to know what time is was. 

The he cocked his head to the side slightly. “The Host wishes to inform the Author that the Jims, Sam, Tim, Phantom, and Natemare are planning a prank in the living room.”

The noise Author made was something between fond exasperation and amusement. “What sort of prank do they have in mind?”

“They are recycling the Rubber Chicken Prank.”

The what? Wait-

“Is that like… putting a bunch of rubber chickens everywhere?”

“Indeed.”

“Huh. Why would they recycle that?”

“Everybody seemed to find it rather amusing, and the Jims wished to brighten the mood.”

“Huh.” There was a moment of silence. “You want to prank them back?”

“Is the Author insinuating The Host joins him to begin a prank war?”

“Yup.”

There was a pause as Host won the game. 

“...The Host agrees.”

\----------

“Everybody in position?”

“Yup!”

“Yep.”

“Here!”

“Ready!”

Each Jim snapped their fingers and were armed with familiar rubber chickens. 

“Let’s go.”

\----------

“Flowers?”

“The Host likes flowers.”

Author held up his hands in surrender. “I wasn’t arguing, just asking.”

The room soon filled with the sound of muttering and scribbling. 

This had to be perfect. 

\----------

Chase woke up to the smell of flowers. 

He sat up- 

Woah. 

That was… really fucking cool. 

Strings of yellow and pink and purple flowers trimmed the ceiling of the room, falling in curtains over the walls and windows. 

Little white butterflies danced through the air. 

One landed on the brim of the hat sitting next to him on a side table. 

He smiled. 

This was going to be a good day, he just knew it. 

He carefully took a few sprigs and pressed them into his journal to remember. 

They were really pretty.

\------------

They knew they were screwed when, not three minutes into placing chickens, their hands were filled with bouquets of sunflowers. 

Well that didn’t bode well for their plans. 

They didn’t notice that all of the chickens they had placed abruptly relocated as grasses and clovers sprouted out of the couch cushions and butterflies and moths appeared in little bursts of sparkles around the lighting fixtures.

\------------

They woke up to a room full of daffodils. 

That was a nice surprise. 

Wilford cheerfully crafted a crown to wear for the entire day. 

He approved. 

\----------

Nobody blinked when Host and Author walked into the kitchen, heads wreathed with flowers. 

The massive bush of Hydrangeas on Author seemed physically impossible, but hey, it worked. 

Host merely wore a crown of Orchids, the many rings encircling each other masking his bandages nicely. 

Robbie was bouncing in his chair with a cheery crown of Freesia and Bouvardia. 

The Calla Lillies on Dark’s head looked great with his aesthetic. 

It seemed the flower crowns were popular. 

Yan was rocking the orange roses. 

Actually, so was Bing. He seemed pleased that it matched his aesthetic. 

Mare and Phantom wore the sunflowers, although Phantom had changed his to match his outfit. 

They seemed to have swapped their bodies back to normal at least. 

Host carefully,  _ carefully _ , disconnected his senses from the auras around him to sense the sheer amount of plant life on the manor.

The little daisy chains on the tops of each Roomba sealed the deal. 

Host fixed Author with a Look. 

So he’d gotten carried away, sue him. 

Iplier and Schneep looked happy with their Petunias. 

And the strings of moss hanging on the railings and the balconies outside looked really pretty from the street.

\-----------

The day passed rather uneventfully, if covered in flowers. Butterflies flit through the air, Sam and Tim took picture after picture with their little daisy flower crowns, and the mood was lighter than it had been in weeks. 

A little while after dinner there was a loud crash of objects falling in the other room, where the Jims were plotting for a new project. 

A series of thumps shattered the relative silence as the Jims yelped.

Dark looked up with a frown. |Are you five alright?|

There were a few familiar honks as they trudged back into the room, rubber chickens in hand. 

Author cracked a grin. 

Host’s lips twitched upwards. 

The pieces fell into place. 

“Why’d you-”

“Recycling a prank is in bad taste, although your motives were rather noble. I believe we pulled off ours rather nicely.” Host nodded in agreement.

The butterflies were beginning to dissolve into little sparks of light. 

Jackie let out a low whistle, the yellow roses on his head looking perfectly in character. 

“I have to admit, you guys have style.”

“Thank you.”

The rest of the night was filled with chit chat as everybody enjoyed the flowers. 

That had been a rather tasteful, and successful, prank. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed!   
I'm very excited for next week's!   
I suppose I can give you a peek....   
Here's the title!   
"Demonic Circle and Dorito Parties"  
It involves the Jims. The rest will have to wait!~


End file.
